Part 68 (1/2)

Sc.r.a.pE. To get into a sc.r.a.pe; to be involved in a disagreeable business.

Sc.r.a.pER. A fiddler; also one who sc.r.a.pes plates for mezzotinto prints.

Sc.r.a.pING. A mode of expressing dislike to a person, or sermon, practised at Oxford by the students, in sc.r.a.ping their feet against the ground during the preachment; frequently done to testify their disapprobation of a proctor who has been, as they think, too rigorous.

SCRATCH. Old Scratch; the Devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated.

SCRATCH LAND. Scotland.

SCRATCH PLATTER, or TAYLOR'S RAGOUT. Bread sopt in the oil and vinegar in which cuc.u.mbers have been sliced.

SCREEN. A bank note. Queer screens; forged bank notes.

The cove was twisted for smas.h.i.+ng queer screens; the fellow was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.

SCREW. A skeleton key used by housebreakers to open a lock. To stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but merely locked.

TO SCREW. To copulate. A female screw; a common prost.i.tute. To screw one up; to exact upon one in a bargain or reckoning.

SCREW JAWS. A wry-mouthed man or woman.

SCRIP. A sc.r.a.p or slip of paper. The cully freely blotted the scrip, and tipt me forty hogs; the man freely signed the bond, and gave me forty s.h.i.+llings.--Scrip is also a Change Alley phrase for the last loan or subscription.

What does scrip go at for the next rescounters? what does scrip sell for delivered at the next day of settling?

SCROBY. To be tipt the scroby; to be whipt before the justices.

SCROPE. A farthing. CANT.

SCRUB. A low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work.

SCRUBBADO. The itch.

SCULL. A head of a house, or master of a college, at the universities.

SCULL, or SCULLER. A boat rowed by one man with a light kind of oar, called a scull; also a one-horse chaise or buggy.

SCULL THATCHER. A peruke-maker.

Sc.u.m. The riff-raff, tag-rag, and bob-tail, or lowest order of people.

SCUT. The tail of a hare or rabbit; also that of a woman.

SCUTTLE. To scuttle off; to run away. To scuttle a s.h.i.+p; to make a hole in her bottom in order to sink her.

SEA CRAB. A sailor.

SEA LAWYER. A shark.

SEALER, or SQUEEZE WAX. One ready to give bond and judgment for goods or money.

SECRET. He has been let into the secret: he has been cheated at gaming or horse-racing. He or she is in the grand secret, i.e. dead.